Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Passion—hot, soul-changing passion. I just finished my summer, 2010 release, Shut Up and Kiss Me, and there’s quite a bit of passion in that book. A couple of scenes, one taking place on a desktop, well, let’s just say I had to crank the air conditioner down when I wrote it.

I do love that kind of passion, but that’s not exactly the type of passion I’m blogging about. Yup, there are different kinds of passion. Most of them are powerful, most of them can be mind consuming, and most of them are a heck of a lot of fun. (My characters had fun on that desk top!)

But I’m talking about the things you do in your life that you enjoy . . . besides the things you have to get naked to do. I’m talking about hobbies, interest, things that just tickle your fancy, that makes you happy from the inside out.

The kind of something that when you do it, times flies by, you find yourself putting your worries and stresses on the back burner, the kind of thing that feels so good doing it, that you often feel guilty. And one more time, I’m not talking about sex!

I think it was Deepak Chopra who said, (and I’m paraphrasing) that to do what you love, what you’re passionate about, and get paid to do it, is true happiness. I think the man was on to something. Because let me tell you, one of my biggest passions is writing. And I consider myself very lucky to do it for a living. Don’t get me wrong, writing is still a job, there are deadlines, and stresses.

Duh, people want the writing to be grammatically correct and things spelled right. Being dyslexic makes that hard, and I don’t like hard, I just want to tell my stories. I’d rather clip a stranger’s toenails than polish and proof my work. But I do it. (Polish and proof my work, I’ve yet to clip a stranger’s toenails.) I’m polishing that June book now. Ahh, but when I’m in the creating part, when I’m getting that first draft down, I’m in heaven. Hours can go by and I’ll forget to pee, or eat, and I’ll find myself writing until three in the morning.

Now, I have other passions in my life that don’t provide regular income, or keep me up so late, and I’ll be the first to admit, I don’t indulge into them near enough. Some of my other passions include: slow walks in the woods or on the beach, sampling good wine, cooking, jigsaw puzzles, photography, reading, and traveling.

While my passions are rather sane, for a nutcase like myself, I know and have met some people whose passions are rather . . . bizarre. I knew and wrote about a guy whose passion was . . . skunks. His mission was not only to save them from negative opinions of the general public, but he rescued skunks from attics, under people’s beds and from the sides of the road. He nursed, cared for, and trained orphaned skunks to act like . . . big skunks so he could release them in the wild.

I knew someone else whose passion was riding wooden rollercoasters and someone who went goo-goo over painting mailboxes. Another person I knew went nutzo over weaving baskets--baskets that only stood an inch high.

Crazy? Maybe. But amazingly, when these people talked about these things, you could feel it. “It” being their excitement, their joy, their passion.

Now, some of you might say, that your passion is your children, or your spouse, maybe your family as a whole. And don’t get me wrong, I love my family, and having just now discovered grandmotherhood, I’m ecstatic at this new role. But through my years I’ve learned that it’s not always wise to let other people be your passion. I’m not saying don’t love them, I’m not even saying don’t place them first in your life. Hey, we’re women, we were meant to care.

What I’m saying is that as women we often forget that we need to take time for ourselves, time to explore things that make us genuinely happy, things that don’t necessarily involve emotions for another person.

Have we not all seen what happens to moms when their children are their lives and these children grow up and leave home? Suddenly these women are left not knowing who they are. Then there are the wives whose passion are their husbands. Women who devoted their entire beings to their spouse, men who suddenly decided they wanted a divorce.

A woman whom I care dearly about recently told me, “I would give anything if I had a passion in my life like the one you have with your writing.”

I immediately started questioning her about the things she loved to do, things that made her happy. Sadly enough, she didn’t know what made her happy. And she isn’t the only one. It made me remember that at one time I too had walked passionless though my days and years. Before I discovered writing, before I discovered the importance of nurturing one’s soul.

So I ask you, what is your passion? Is there a way you can incorporate it into part of your career? Or is it already a part of your career?

Or, are you someone who has neglected to take the time to nurture your soul, to find that something that when you do it, your worries slip away? If you are, I hope you will try to reconnect to something that inspires you, that you will relearn how to play. You’ll recognize your passion because when doing it, time ceases to exist, and you suddenly realize that you are starving and haven’t peed in hours. It might not be healthy for your bladder, but it’s heaven for your soul.

Today, I hope you will share your passions with me. Tell me what you love, what you need to do more of, tell me your plans to rediscover what it means to have fun.

Morning Christie! I just put my baby on the school bus for the first time. Boy, that was hard, but she's in good hands (the driver is a friend). And now my husband is driving the cat nuts because he's bored...LOL

Passions...well, writing and reading, of course. I used to love to cook, to the point that my husband put on like 25 lbs., but that was before I had kids. *g* I love to watch TV & movies. I love a rainy day, always have. While most people are pray for sunshine, I pray for clouds & rain. I love watching singing and/or dancing competitions. Not sure why, but I can't resist a reality show that features one or both. Heck, I can't resist reality shows period. Well, except The Biggest Loser, since to me that would be depressing...LOL

I'm so glad to hear another writer say they love writing the first draft but are "not" in love with the tweaking. I was beginning to think I was the only one like that (well, I think King has been quoted saying he doesn't like it either!:)

Onto the topic! I love decorating, it runs a tight second to the writing (came close to passing it for a time)...when we move or a friend moves, I LOVE the part of decorating. It's like looking at a blank palette and creating from the ground up. Love it!

And one other piece of information I just learned from a friend (digressing a little again, although it IS passionate!:)

There have been studies done on kissing. If the people involved (husband, wife, hope there's no LOVER in between;) will kiss for ten seconds a day, now this is a passionate kiss, like romance in the backseat stuff, it sets off things in the body that go to the brain and the brain releases a chemical that instill's in us the feeling we are reallllly loved.

We've been practicing...and guess what? My hubby comes to "me" for the 10 second exercise, and he's extending it longer and longer...and sometimes wants it TWICE a day!

Now what else could a gal want? Only thing I can think of is a ghost writer to do the tweaking on my first draft (WG)

Writing. Some days I'm less passionate about it because I think all I write is crap, but my friends who aren't writers, inform me that writing is clearly my passion. *LOL*

I have a passion for JoAnn's stores. And I will take up nearly any hobby to procrastinate about writing (when it's not going well): crocheting (did a baby blanket); scrapbooking (I buy stuff, haven't scrapbooked in 2 years); painting (I have blank canvases but won't paint because I don't want to ruin the white--now that's TELLING of my perfectionist nature); sewing (I can't tell you the number of sewing projects I have going on)

Oh, and this is my last one, I promise! I love to make cupcakes. Cupcakes make me happy because they're so cute and happy; and people like to eat them because they're so cute and happy.

I recently made some sunflower decorated cupcakes with oreos for the middle and yellow-orange petals, with red lady bugs on the edge. It was my friend's birthday; and she loves Black Eyed Susans--they were the closest I could come up with.

Good morning, Christie--love your post and it's scary how much we're alike, but I do lose myself in my writing. Days disappear while I'm lost in my fantasy world and I have to be dragged out of my office by my spouse on occasion who, for some reason, wants to be fed. Strange man.

On the other hand, I also love revising. It's like putting the final touches on a painting, smoothing out the rough edges and making the final picture come together, and I can lose hours over a single paragraph in the process of getting it right. Love everything about writing and I'd definitely have to label it as a "passion".

Oh! Ms Hellion...do you REALIZE what you could DO with those cupcakes placed on a tiered plate, with faux greenery below??? And then you could decorate the rest of the room in yellow...like a sunny day...and we could re-arrange the furniture to make it look like you were in a garden...and...

LOL...I think between the two of us, we could give Martha Stewart a run for her money, AND we'd know how to write the book on the technique's :)

Lo, we could totally the world by storm! I'm totally for it...so long as I'm not expected to paint. (I can't stand painting rooms. I get horribly whiny.)

CC, *LOL* Thank you! They're just cupcakes made from a box cake because those are usually more moist. It's all about the decoration for me. We make Groundhog's Day cupcakes with almond joys turned into cute little groundhogs and stuck in the middle of hte cupcake. Sometimes I make "plain" one with a chocolate ganache frosting. (The guy at the gym likes that one best. *LOL*) Ironically I bring these to the gym on SPECIAL OCCASIONS for our BodyPump class.

MsHellion, I'm making cupcakes today to make me feel better about my baby going off to school...LOL

Christie, my baby's a girl, Alyssa. And you should've seen her, she looked so scared when she got on the bus. :-( Her sister started intermediate school this year, so she rides a different bus. That made it even harder for Alyssa, who didn't understand why she couldn't ride the same bus as her sister.

Darn, I'd better get going on those cupcakes...LOL

No writing today, I have cleaning, cooking (gotta make a nice big dinner for the first day of school), then I have some contest entries to judge. I start writing on Thursday, no ifs, ands, or buts. :-)

There is nothing wrong with alone time!!! If I don't get my quota of it, I'm a bear.

I've never done any scrapbooking. But I used to crosstitch.

Cooking, I love it. It's soothing for me. Last night I fixed Chicken Marsala, creamed potatoes, baby limas, green beans, and corn. This is one hobby of mine that my hubby loves. I could have used the brownies to go with it.

CC, instead of making a whole pan of brownies, which only inspires guilt when you eat them all, you can make a grilled chocolate sandwich. Which despite sounding odd, is like crack. You can do a peanut butter version (like a grilled PB sandwich with chocolate chips in the middle that melt when you grill) OR you can do the version I've been doing lately (from the Food Network) where you got white bread, a couple slices of brie, chocolate chips--then grilled. Sounds odd, but insanely delicious.

Who said brownies inspires guilt? LOL. Actually, there really isn't any guilt to cooking a huge batch. Not for the reason you might think. I seldom get to eat more than one before they are devoured by the two male species in the household.

And now I know why I stay away from those cooking shows. That sandwich sounds yummy.

Hmmmm eat the cupcakes...(see how insanely passionate I am about display and presentation? hadn't even thought of EATING them! whoop! Gawd.)

I'm diabetic, BUT, I'm sure after I calmed down from the decorating frenzy I'd want one, and because I'd expended so much energy, I could probably eat that puppy and my sugar never even blip. Yea! I'd eat the cupcake!:):)

Passions? Writing and reading, of course. But one that's gotten shoved to the back burner lately is genealogy. I love working on my family's history. Though it's a lot more fun when I actually find out things and confirm people. It's sort of like being a detective and I get to be really nosy about a bunch of dead people. What's not to love? *g*

I've had a lifelong love of yarn starting young with my grandma teaching me to crochet. After decades of failure I even recently was successful in teaching myself to knit...with a pair of socks, no less. What fun. But my absolute favorite is a little known craft called Swedish Weaving. I absolutely love it. Yarns have certainly come a long way, too. The selection really sparks my imagination! Combine any one of those crafts with listening to a good audio book and I am a happy camper.

I'm passionate about reading. It can make a day go by fast, or I can lose a lot of sleep because I'm unable to put a book down. I find lately that I miss singing. I used to sing all the time and had belonged to an acapella group, but moving and growing children have kept me from it.

A good book takes me away, too. Singing? Well, I can't carry a tune if it was in a bucket, but I love to pretend I can in the shower. But you need to find a way to get involved again. Tiptoe you way back into it, girl.

Even though I no longer do it professionally, I still love to sing. Give me a challenging piece of music and my heart, body and soul are completely engaged. Music gives me hope. It reminds me that there is truth and beauty in the world.

I think I'm passionate about making life better and not settling for anything. It's a somewhat recent passion, arriving in the last decade or so. Life really is too short and if you're not working to change your situation, you don't get to complain about it. :)

Thanks for sharing your passion with us! Can't wait to read the new stuff.

I love your passion and quest. It's so true. When we settle, we rob ourselves of our rights and wonderful prizes that life offers. It's like a box of Cracker Jacks, the prize is there if we'll just dig deep enough to find it. But you have to open the box and start munching away. Okay, so most things are harder than eating Cracker Jacks, but if your quest is a passion, it's never as hard as we think it might be.

Or maybe it would be more accurate to say I am passionate about learning and exploring and getting life and experiences all over me? Because I love to travel, to cook, to garden, to watch movies, to draw and paint (although I haven't dones those as much as I'd like lately) to read about all those things and more.

But, yeah, it's mostly the reading and the writing. But life is pretty darn interesting. My son teases me because I am so easily entertained.

Not baseball so much, though. Or that weird ice sport with the brushes they had in the Olympics. Although I can usually find a way to make being stuck watching those fun too. ;)

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